Tuesday 11/11/08 N*E*R*D @ The Roundhouse, London

“We’re here to party,” Pharrell Williams screams. “I know there are some journo’s here tonight. Let the headline read: N*E*R*D are here to kick a mother****ing hole in the mother****ing Roundhouse.” This stuff just writes itself.

Pharrell prowls the stage like he’s been locked up in a studio for too long. He may be a super cool Neptune these days but he’s a n*e*r*d at heart. And what do nerds do? Force the entire Roundhouse crowd to rock the Star Trek hand symbol of course. Live long and prosper Pharrell.

You can’t escape the credit crunch these days, even at a hip hop gig it seems, as the king of cool discusses Wall Street. Perfect opportunity to start singing ‘Crashing Down’ then. And it doesn’t end there. In an historic week for America, a certain black president isn’t too far away either. “Let’s party for the mother****ing clever people in Government,” Pharrell offers.

But it’s not all land of the free tonight. Patriotic antics – English style – creep in as the band ask the crowd what the best city in the world is… “London” we holler. Booing and hissing ensues as the cooler than thou audience are shown up to be true n*e*r*d*s with a penchant for pantomime.

“I don’t care if you’re black, white, Lebannese, Chinese, Latino, polka dot, see-through, just so long as you’re here to party with N*E*R*D.“ And party we do. An hour and a quarter set includes all the classics. The nine-strong band  absolutely nail ‘Rock Star’, ‘Lapdance’ and ‘The Way You Move’, all the while with massive grins on.

The finale involves the original ladies man himself carefully selecting an assortment of lovely fillies from the front to girrate on stage. Making their lives complete. The hip hop night to end all nights climaxes with the rocking White Stripes ‘Seven Nation Army’ bassline and the entire Roundhouse audience screaming “All the girls standing in the line for the bathroom” from catchier than a cold recent single ‘Everybody Nose’. Consider the mother****ing Roundhouse, well and truly, mother****ing kicked in.

N*E*R*D at The Roundhouse: